In her first column, Luhrmann explores the difficulties that believers in God and skeptics face in connecting with each other. The escalation of this opposition, which Luhrmann calls “schismogenesis,” is pervasive—and yet Luhrmann nonetheless sees possibilities for optimism:

[B]elievers and nonbelievers are not so different from one another, news that is sometimes a surprise to both. When I arrived at one church I had come to study, I thought that I would stick out like a sore thumb. I did not. Instead, I saw my own doubts, anxieties and yearnings reflected in those around me. People were willing to utter sentences — like “I believe in God” — that I was not, but many of those I met spoke openly and comfortably about times of uncertainty, even doubt. Many of my skeptical friends think of themselves as secular, sometimes profoundly so. Yet these secular friends often hover on the edge of faith. They meditate. They keep journals. They go on retreats. They just don’t know what to do with their spiritual yearnings.

Read the full piece here. And check out Reverberations’ interview with Luhrmann.